[Cob] the mobile home

[JUDITH WILLIAMS]

So I'm going to have this beautiful sculpted shed next to my old
>ugly mobile home. Now I also want to add a sunroom and office to my house 
>and of course I want to use cob.

I read your question and subsequent responses and thoughts with great 
interest. This is just the thing I would think of. In fact when I was 
looking for a piece of land to build on I looked for something that already 
had a mobile home on it so the infrastructure would be there. I would build 
a small house next to the trailer than have it hauled away when I had 
something to live in. If I were in your shoes I would go ahead and build the 
additions you want, a nice sunroom and office, just don't attach it so 
firmly to the mobile home that it can't be separated later. I love the 
rounded sculptural look of cob and don't think you could achieve that with a 
mobile home frame. Here in NM there are a lot of stuccoed mobile homes and 
that's exactly what they look like. After I had my cob rooms completely done 
I would move the whole family into them ( just temporarily), have the moblie 
home removed (or just relocate it on the property. They make excellent 
storage spaces), and proceed with building the rest of the house, taking 
advantage of the electrical and plumbing that you already have there. Budget 
some money to hire an electrician and plumber to advise you and perhaps help 
you out a little but you do most of the actual work yourself. In my mind 
there are things I do myself to save money and things I hire out for safety 
reasons. I must say though that cob is a very labor intensive and lengthy 
way to build. I investigated all methods of construction and decided on 
papercrete for several reasons. For one thing it's inexpensive. I'll be 
using the soil that is there and get paper for free from recyclers or the 
newspaper company. Also I need something that isn't too physically 
demanding. I tried cob and just couldn't see myself tromping on that stuff 
to the extent that it would make a house. I don't have much help in the way 
of family or volunteers so will be doing most of the labor myself. The 
papercrete can either be made in forms (with the blocks weighing just 3 
pounds) or poured into forms for walls. So anyway, that's my take on things. 
I definitely don't think your ideas are wacky and hope you keep us informed 
about your progress.